


Siren's Call

by sablesheep



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, F/F, Library Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-14 10:46:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sablesheep/pseuds/sablesheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While being dragged along on the Empress's annual survey of the kingdom, Meenah gets bored at the Naval Academy and decides to explore. And then finds the cutest little spider in the library and hot damn this is more fun than she was expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cynicow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynicow/gifts).



> Alternate Universe where everyone ends up staying on Beforus and getting jobs I guess? 
> 
> Using Meenah's quirk because, really, her quirk is kind of super fantastic. So if something is spelled weird or wrong, assume it's because I'm trying to make a fishpun.

Meenah wants to be anywhere but standing in the middle of the Naval Academy all alone, left with nothing to do but sulk and plot about the best ways to kill off her predecessor and not be immediately placed on the throne in replacement. 

Seariously, when it comes to bein' royal, they aren't messing around. 'Kill the Empress, Meenah' 'Don't kill the Empress, Meenah', 'Stay here, Meenah', 'Be good, Meenah', 'Get some work done, Meenah'. 

Well fuck that. Fuck all of that. She isn't going to do any of those things-- she's going to stand here, glaring, until someone comes back for her and properly apologizes for treating her like a nobody.

* * *

Her determination wavers after thirteen minutes, during which time she's lectured by three different professors before they realize who she is and back away, paling, two school guards who did the same and, finally, one of the Empress's advisers who informed her that she couldn't stand there for the next three weeks so she'd be better off finding some way to amuse herself. 

Jared. Ugh. She hates Jared and his stupid face, always tellin' her how to do things and not to light things on fire and that she's not allowed to turn her shoe closet into an aquarium.

She slinks off down the main hall, dragging her boots along the floor and leaving long scuff marks on the formerly pristine while marble. It's polished enough for her to see herself reflected back, scowling face, shark teeth, piercings and all. Making faces at the floor keeps her entertained her for three minutes, until she realizes how stupid she probably looks and then snaps back into Heiress mode, straightening her posture and fixing an expression of vague disinterest on her face until she processes what the fuck she's doing and shakes herself down like a cat, slouching and glaring once more.

After a period of exploration of a building that's more boring than she thought was fucking possible for a place full of adolescent trolls being trained to kill in her name, she finds herself before the massive doors of the naval library.

Huh. Well. This is somethin', right? She stuffs her hands into the pockets of her jeans and stares up at the carved granite, a smile of sneaky pride inching across her face. Yeah, this is fucking something. Gorgeous, amiright? 

The door is covered in depictions of Empresses and Heiresses past in the action of slaying and maiming and murdering. It's everything Meenah had expected to see when she'd been informed that she was being dragged along to an inspection of naval headquarters. Sadly, none of that sort of violence appears to be actually _occurring_. It's as fucking silent as a tomb and everything is so fucking perfect-- its worse than the palace. Nothin' out of place, nothin' broken, nothin' happening. 

She sighs, blowing a few strands of loose hair out of her face and kicks the door open. Stupid prissy assholes making everything boring as fuck. When she's in charge, things are going to be a lot more fucking fun. 

The library isn't nearly as exciting as Meenah hoped. It’s a perfect example of the Empire's sense of grandeur and might but... it's.. empty. And _quiet_ and _ugh_ this is stupid too. 

Meenah stomps inside, the sound of her footsteps ricocheting off the vaulted ceilings and bouncing around the carved bookshelves. She eyes the curved railing of the staircases that connect the various floors of the rotunda, debating the merits of sliding down the bannisters until she breaks something or herself and gets sent home in disgrace. At least then she'd be able to do somethin'.

"Excuse me."

A voice rings out in the silence of the room like the clear tinkling of a crystal bell. Meenah turns towards the source with a surprised snarl, her hands balling into fists at her sides. 

"Oh, goodness!" The speaker squeaks, nearly falling from her chair behind the library's reception desk. "I didn't mean to-- oh dear, I just-- if you wouldn't mind, perhaps, being a little quieter, Miss? It's just there are a few cadets who occasionally enjoy studying here and there is a chapel on the second floor used for silent contemplation and someone might find it a little jarring to be interrupted in such a fashion but I suppose it's really rather rude of me to ask you to step quieter, I mean, things are rather prone to echoing here and-- and-- I do apologize, but--"

Meenah stopped listening after the girl's initial meek exclamation. Her focus is divided between struggling to maintain an expression of solemn grumpiness and containing a blush that's threatening to spread up her cheeks. 

Out of the list of things she'd been expectin' to find in the library, books had been at the top of the list. Librarian had been second. But she'd never, ever, EVER seen a librarian that looked like this before. The librarians she'd met had a tendency to be older and threatening, muscles bulging beneath their skin and eyes constantly narrowed, threatening to rip your throat out if you missed a due date and crushing your skull if you so much as bent a page. 

This little cuttlefish, however, is scarcely tall enough to reach past Meenah's shoulder, her hands slim and almost fragile lookin' as they nervously twine around her braided hair in an attempt to calm herself. She's got gorgeous blue eyes hidden behind a pair of delicate glasses; they're such a deep shade of sapphire Meenah's amazed she's not one of the highblooded cadets sittin' in class down the corridor. Her face is absolutely unguarded, nervousness flickering across it like images on a television screen. 

In short, she's absolutely adorable. Meenah wants to haul her over the desk and cuddle her just becod she could and-- damn is she still talking? 

"S'fine." Meenah mutters, kicking at the parquet floor with a wide eyed stare that would have been of utter infatuation if she were anyone else. "I'll stop."

"Oh. Um. Well. Thank you, I do appreciate it. My supervisor would be rather put out, I'd imagine, to know I was allowing a patron to, well, you know--"

"S'fine." Meenah snaps, clicking her teeth together. The librarian falls abruptly silent. Meenah dares a glance up at her. She's staring, curiously, her head tilted to one side so that her shoulder-length braid hangs to one side of her neck. Meenah meets her gaze with narrowed eyes.

"What're you starin' at, cuttlefish?" She growls, striding over to the desk (as quietly as she can). Meenah bangs her hands onto the countertop in a jangle of jewel adorned leather bracelets that makes the librarian jump and nearly knock her ledger to the floor. 

"No, it's just, I'm quite curious to know if it hurt to do that to your face like that, I've never seen anyone with so many pieces of metal in their face, I mean not that there's anything wrong with that, I perfectly understand the use of piercings as a way to express one's individuality especially in a society that's so strongly dictated by blood color and socially-defined classes, but it does seem like you have quite a few more than normal and oh goodness are those pink sapphires they really to sparkle quite nicely, don't they?"

"Uh... what?"

With a giggle that's almost like an arrow through Meenah's heart-- becod fuck this she's just really fuckin' adorable-- the librarian reaches out and points to one of the loops running through Meenah's brow. "Oh dear, I do ramble, don't I? No wonder I'll never get promoted. Did it hurt to get so many piercings?"

"Yeah. 'Course it did."

"Well they do lend you quite the mysterious aura of intimidation. Almost like you're the member of an urban gang determined to bring justice and harmony to a city run by corrupt officials and--"

"You talk. A lot." Meenah says, flatly, giving her a crooked grin. 

"Well. Um. Yes, I do. Is it a problem because I can be quiet it's really just I kind of prefer to speak my mind because how else can people really get to know you--"

"S'alright." Meenah drops onto one of the stools in front of the counter. "I like it."

"Oh." She blushes the most beautiful shade of blue, trying to hide it by staring down at her work. "Um. Thank you."

Meenah reaches out and fidgets with one of the pens on the counter. "Worked here long?" She asks, as casually as she can. Meenah's terrible at making small talk.

"About eight years now." She says with a bright smile, an almost wistful look in her eyes. "This place has been my home for quite some time."

"Damn, girl." Meenah snorts, giving her a slow once more. She blushes even more deeply and tries to pretend she doesn't know she's being stared down. "You don't look that old."

"Yes, well, I arrived here when I was eleven and worked my way up through the system." She smiles, absently closing her ledger which makes Meenah grin because fuck yes she's getting attention. "I started off as a page and now I'm the deputy."

"Damn." Meenah leans forward, propping her chin up on her elbows. One of her legs starts to swing back and forth, quietly thumping against the reception desk. "Good work."

The librarian turns an even deeper shade of blue if that's possible and mumbles her thanks, fidgeting with her paperwork. "So, um, are you a student here?"

"Naw. No one'd let me in here." Letting out a derisive snort, Meenah reaches over the desktop and drags forward an open book sitting on the worktop. Her quarry looks rather affronted but doesn't say anything in remark.

"Oh, really? I'm quite surprised, considering--"

"Considering what?" She snaps, tearing her eyes away from the page-- it's a book about shipwrecks and she fuckin' loves shipwrecks-- and bares her teeth once more. 

"Well, the gills." She says, offhandedly, raising her eyebrows. "I mean. Not to be classist but those are generally common to the higherbloods, are they not?"

"Oh." Meenah drops her gaze back to the book, the back of her neck burning. "Sorry."

"No, I really should apologize, it was rather rude of me to assume that everyone from a particular caste would be inclined to go into the same branch of work when I myself disdained to join the ranks of imperial enforcement in favor of surrounding myself by fictionalized creations and diving into the realm of fantasy instead of embracing wholeheartedly the beauty of the outside world--"

"S'okay. Really." Meenah shrugs, hoisting herself up onto the edge of the counter with what her etiquette tutors would call 'an incredibly unladylike' grunt. 

This is an apt description. She sounds exactly like a man. An incredibly overweight man trying to do a sit up. The tiny little librarian looks mildly horrified and coughs delicately.

"Um." She says, softly, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I, um-- Can I help you with anything?"

"Nope." Meenah says, popping her gum with a noisy crack, staring at her new librarian. Yep. This could be fun. This could be _reely_ fun. 

The librarian blinks at her, clearly nonplussed. Meenah stares back without blinking, wondering how long she has to wait before kidnapping her. Prolly a lot longer than ten minutes, right? 

"...Um. Well." She coughs, delicately, and slips off her glasses. Meenah doesn't break her stare. Fuck is she pretty. What's a pretty girl like this doing in'na job that's meant for someone big and scary enough for a full grown troll? Not that you can't be pretty and badass, y'know. But. Well. She looks like she could be kept on a shelf, a porcelain doll in haute coture. 

"If you don't need any help, please feel free to browse." She says, friendly, giving her a smile. And then-- to Meenah's surprise-- it's as if someone's flipped a switch because she goes back to her work like nothing's happened and like Meenah's not standing there at all.

She finishes checking in a stack of books. Meenah keeps staring. She looks over every one of them for damage. Upon realizing that one of the spines is damaged she frowns and begins to walk away from the desk.

That's when Meenah slips off the stool and almost lunges across the desk. Oh hell no she's not about to run away. Fuck that shit--

" _I NEED YOUR HELP NOW_." She snarls, reaching out and grabbing her by the braid. She freezes, mid-step and turns.

"Of course." She says, warmly, giving Menah another one of those knee-weakening smiles. "More than happy to."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meenah almost kills Aranea. It's pretty self-explanatory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just find fishpuns really cute, okay?

Meenah asks her for a book about shipwrecks. It's a reelly fucking stupid suggestion and she kinda' hates herself for it but, well, she can't really resist. She likes boats. Especially underwater boats. Full of fish and whatnot and totally badass and there's sharks and octopuses and-- well y'know. Fishies.

Meenah likes fishies. Or is it fishes? Fishii? Ugh all of that sounds stupid. She likes fish in general. The way they swim, the way they breathe-- the way their bodies gleam underwater as the sunlight slips through the water and hits their scales.

She has an aquarium at home. She reely loves her aquarium. It's big enough that she can swim in it, petting the stingrays just to feel their beautiful skin beneath her fingers. Meenah likes the way they feel, like well-oiled leather that's been thrown into the ocean to ferment, only to become slickly silky. She also likes to try to catch some of the more shiny little fishies that are reely good at swimmin' because that's just really awesome way to pass the time.

The little librarian steps out from behind the counter. She smoothes her dress down around her hips in an instictive gesture, straightening her cardigan in the same movement. It's a practiced elegance that Meenah associates with well-bred lady-people. It's the kind of things she should be doin' but never does becod reasons. The librarian shakes her head a little too hard, whapping her braid into her face. Ahh yup, that's more like it. Meenahstares at her as she starts off across the room, trippin' a little bit over the edge of a rug. 

She's slim, just a little on the short side but wearin' heels to account for it. They clip softly on the floorboards as she makes for the stairs. Her heels rise out of the backs of her shoes with each step. The book wrangler reminder her of a mellow housecat; she moves steadily but not slinkily, soft muscles and an obvious atempt at good posture that's failin'. Meenah can tell that she'd be able to fight if pressed to, but her body seems more built for strolling hedge mazes and cuddling up with a book before a fire, not biting someone's face off over takin' notes in book margins.

The librarian unconciously jumps the first step, her skirt swishing around her knees. Meenah shuffles after her, twitching at the creaky wood.

"Dammmmmmmmn girl," She breathes with a whistle, watching her climb up the steps. "That ass--"

" _Excuse me_." She hisses, turning so sharply on her heel that her braid, once again, snaps her in the face. The girl makes an angry kitten noise in response, giving Meenah her most ferocious smile. Meenah's immediately awed: how the fuckin' hell does anybody stroke the balance between polite customer service and fury? Her fangs are impressive, to say the least. Meenah flounders with delight.

She gives her an angry huff and stops with her hands on her hips. Meenah would feel gillty but, uh. Hot girl. Hot girl in old lady clothes (long black dress, tights, black cardigan, no skin showing like at fuckin' all) but still a hot girl. Hot girl with a stare sharp enough to hook a shark. Meenah shoves her hands into her pockets, slouches a little more and huffs.

"Sorry," she grumbles, rolling her eyes. "Just puttin' the net in the water."

"As I was saying," She mutters, frowning and tossing her braid over her shoulder. Meenah's close enough that she can smell her hair, scented with soap instead of seawater like Meenah's. The librarian moves up the stairs with the awareness of a woman who knows exactly what she's doing and is confident in her abilities-- but also isn't entirely sure if she's up to the task. It's kind of fuckin' adorable how she makes nervous hand gestures, turning to face Meenah as they walk only to trip over stairs. It's as if she's desperate to prove to her that she knows what she's doing, but her efforts just make her look hopelessly adorable.

"There's some really rather fascinating illustrated guides to local reef wrecks. Most of the ships in the nearby lake are ones used by the scouts learning to swim, of course. They sunk several different vessels for the sole purpose of practicing diving protocol, specifically in regards to reconissance and recovery of royal assets. There's an incredibly old warship down there-- it's really quite beautiful to explore; you can dive all around it and see almost everything the lake has to offer and it's really quite lovely to enjoy first hand.I've never been, since I don't know how to swim and they certainly won't teach me, but, well, the pictures make it look quite phenomenal, perhaps you'd be interested in that--"

Her voice is nice. In a weird way. Meenah doesn't usually like being talked _at_ , or _down_ to. And this is definitely a case of 'look at how fuckin' smart I am, aren't I fan-fucking-tastic?' but it's delivered in a voice that's warm with wonder and excitement. However much highbrow intellectualist bullshit she's indulging in, she's really just excited to be sharing all these words with someone.

Meenah follows her, half listening to what she's saying, allowing the words to wash over her like an ever rising tide. Oh hell is she cute. Cute enough to tie a ribbon around her neck, call her a stray and take her home. Except, well, reely, that wouldn't go over too well. With her, that is. She's got the feeling that the Empress wouldn't be at all non-plussed to see Meenah walk in carrying another troll and say, "I'm keeping her". Kinda seems like normal behavior for their bloodline.

"Now, of course, there's more than one type of shipwreck. We have ancient shipwrecks, modern shipwrecks, wartime shipwrecks, merchant shipwrecks, deep marine shipwrecks, your space shuttle wrecks that fell into the ocean, shipwrecks that were once underwater but are now stranded by the tide, shipwrecks that were caused by marine life--"

 

Shit. She knows her shit. Meenah's more than a little taken aback; she was half-expecting her to be nothing more than a glorified page, shelving books and checking out tomes instead of an honest-to-fuck librarian. She speaks with a calm authority that's just a tad condescending, but Meenah for once doesn't mind. Normally she hates being talked down to, but there's an eagerness to her tone that shows while she might know she's smarter, she doesn't mean to be rude she just wants everyone to know what she knows.

Meenah half wonders if she could be hired as a tutor because she'd be fucked if anyone ever asked her a single question about her government. Penal system? No idea. Probate law? Nada. Marine merchant trading reform? Haha you gotta be kidding. Taxes? Yeah okay she knows about those. Mostly becod she kind of thinks it's awesome that everyone has to give her money for no reason other than she's the Empress to be.

She pauses at one of the landings to allow Meenah to catch up. Meenah continues to amble along at a slow pace, refusin' to be harried. She stops just before the landing and gives the girl a slow once over, smirking. She's so pretty. Reelly pretty, even.

'Specially with those glasses. Meenah wants to slam her into a wall, pull those glasses off of her face and kiss her fuckin' senseless. But she looks a little... austere. So, maybe that's not a good idea.

"Is everything alright, Miss?" She asks her, frowning behind those aforementioned glasses.

"No. No, everything is not alright." Meenah mutters, glaring a little and adjusting her glasses on her nose. "You're really hot and I don't think you seem like the type to put on the first date."

She's taken aback, her eyes widening to never-blinking shark proportions. A gorgeous blush spreads across her face like blue ink dropped onto a fresh sheet of paper, staining her skin the most perfect shade of twilight blue. Meenah expected that; she's been blushin' on and off the whole time. Meenah is, however, unprepared for the sly little smile that curves over her face. "...I might surprise you."

"That mean we're goin' out tonight?" Meenah asks, brazenly, arching her eyebrows and doing her best to look alluring. This would have worked if it weren't for the unfortunate fact that she has far too many teeth to look properly cute. She looks a lot more like a deadly empress when she smiles, sadly.

"Nope. I don't think so. I think I can do better." She says with a cute smile. "Now, can we get back to books?"

"...Fine." Meenah growls, huffing. "But I'm going to do my best to look up your skirt."

She makes a strangled noise but maintains a professional smile all the while. "I'm so sorry Miss but I'm afraid that won't be possible. I'm wearing shorts."

"Oh you have got to be kiddin' me." Meenah lets out a strangled groan as they start back up the stairs and, yes, she is wearing shorts beneath her conservative ensemble. There's two questions raised with this fact; one, how often has she had this problem that she comes to work prepared to avoid it and two, who the fuck is she going to have to punch in the face for harassing this little angelfish?

Other than herself. She's exempt. She gave fair warning. That's what you do when you're going to hit on someone; you tell them you're going to, and then they prepare for you to be an asshole. Or is she mixing that up with dueling again?

No. No, she doesn't think so. Everyone knows you attack when your opponent's back is turned when you duel. Don't be stupid, Meenah.

The librarian begins to talk once more, this time a little more nervously. Hahaha she's swimmin' now. Poor fin' doesn'nt know how to handle some attention. Meenah is, to be quite frank, flattered, becod hell is she playin' hard to get.

"Keep in mind, however, that many of these subjects are cross-listed; for example, many wartime shipwrecks are a result of an execution order given by the Empress, while some peacetime shipwrecks are technically the ones that began wars; all in all, it's rather hard to discern the lines in the sand, so to speak. Not to mention the fact that we also have quite a collection of books about the marine life that chooses to inhabit wrecks, how much modern warships are polluting our oceans, the decay rate of older vessels, the anthropological forays that have been made as a result of objects recovered from wrecks--"

"Fuck, you're krilling me here," Meenah scoffs, rolling her eyes and attempting to look like she's not completely overwhelmed by the information being thrown at her.

The librarian stops talking. She stops walking, as well, so abruptly that Meenah walks into her and almost crashes to the ground. Luckily her new friend isn't unsteady on her feet and doesn't give way to the weight of an Empress to be crashing into her.

"...Did you just say krilling?" She asks, slowly.

Meenah feels her neck start to flush. Fuck. Fuck she totally did. Ugh, who cares-- it was a good pun. "Yeah. Wanna fight about it?"

"Krilling." She says, slowly, shifting the word around in her mouth like she's sampling a fine wine, face scrunching up adorably as the syllables flutter out. "Like. Killing. But krilling?"

"Uh-huh, look, Angelfish, you're ruining the joke--"

She starts to laugh. Laugh hard. Laugh so hard that she doubles over and clings to Meenah's shoulder, with tears forming in her eyes. The sound comes out like a musty old book being cracked open for the first time in ages. Meenah instinctively knows it's something precious that she should hold on to as long as she can. Even so, she blushes an even deeper shade of magenta and frowns, darkly.

"Krilling!" Her little librarian gasps out, barely able to take in breath. "KRILLING."

"It's just a pun. Relax, girl."

"That is--" She tries to calm herself and only dissolves into giggles once more. "Oh dear, oh dear-- that's just-- phenomenal."

"Uh. Glad you think so?" Yeah she's not used to this sort of reaction. People are a whole hell of a lot more likely to punch her in the face for making bad fish puns, not laugh. Not that anyone's ever tried to punch her, mind you; no one wants to mess with the Empress like that. Not even an idiot.

The librarian gives her a smile that's as bright as the sun outside of the library's smoked glass windows, clearly designed to keep out the worst of the book-damaging light. "I could even say that it's... krilliant?"

"...I don't think there could be anyfin’ betta than what just came otter your mouth."

This time, she does collapse from her laughter, leaning against the balustrade to support herself. Her laughter goes on so long and loud that Meenah hears a few patrons begin to complain and she immediately lunges to cover her mouth.

"I'm so-- I'm so sorry--" She gasps, pulling off her glasses and wiping her eyes. "This is so unprofessional of me-- I-- I do apologize."

"No worries." Meenah shrugs and stuffs her hands back into her pockets, trying to pretend that the feel of her lips against her palm wasn't totally the most arousing thing she's felt in weeks. "S'alright."

She wipes her eyes a few more times and then replaces her glasses. Meenah watches her delicate hands move across her eyes, leaving behind smudges of eyeliner that beg to be buffed away by fingers intimately familiar with the structure of her face.

The librarian waits for her to catch up this time so they're walking side by side. It's an acknowledgement of a test she's somehow passed and it's a little easier to understand the river of words streaming past her lips.

She knows the library well and navigates it with shocking confidence; Meenah can barely figure out where in the hell her own bedroom is in her fuckin' house, let alone how the hell to find a book in the planet's second largest library. How the hell do they even sort these things? By author? By subject? By-- ugh-- whatever she doesn't really care. The blue blooded librarian walks down rows of books, picks up stray tomes with a huff, straightens rows of books, all without ceasing her soliloquy.

"--Now that isn't to say that underwater archeology isn't a fascinating subject, of course, but you have to be incredibly careful when performing historical investigations into older wrecks and to be quite frank, given our culture, I always feel that disturbing a shipwreck is like breaking into a mass grave, wouldn't you agree?"

Meenah makes a non-committal noise. She's p. sure that her ancestresses are the ones responsible for most of those watery graves and she's also p. sure she doesn't really care. Dead trolls, wow, that never happens around here. But it's not a question that's waiting for an answer, anyways, so she doesn't worry too much.

She keeps talking even as she leads Meenah down a hallway and up another flight of stairs, until they're in the middle of the rotunda once more. The reference desk is six floors below and Meenah's momentarily blown away by how many books there are in the world. It's reelly kind of incredible, innit? Really incredible, even. But the girl knows where the hell she's going without ever having to look anything up.

Soon enough they're standing before a row of shelves. This particular section of the library overlooks the rotunda; the shelves are only a few feet away from the wood balustrade. There's a little sitting area with a few desks and some remarkably comfortable looking armchairs.

It looks like a nice place to lurk. Meenah immediately decides to make it her secret lair. It just needs a little more gold. And some diamonds. Maybe a coupl'a pink sapphires--

"Here you are," She says with a smile, looking incredibly proud of herself. "Our shipwreck collection."

"Ohhhhhhh. Nice." Meenah says with a non-committal shrug. "Looks good. Thanks."

"...Would you like some help selecting one, Miss?" She asks with a friendly smile. "I'm more than happy to be of assistance."

Meenah's glad she asked because she wasn't about to. "Yeah. Yeah that'd be nice."

The librarian gives her a warm smile and pulls a stepstool out from the end of one of the stacks, dragging it in front of the shelf.

"There's one up here that I think you'd really appreciate-- it's a rather well-written account of several royal divers attempting to find one of the first Empress's funeral barge-- the author has a very conversational tone--"

She climbs to the top of the stepstool and reaches for whatever book she's got in mind. But her reach is just beyond the top shelf and she struggles to make it. Finally she gives up on stretching and stands up on the barest tips of her toes, balancing herself against the shelf. It still doesn't work and she hops up a little bit.

That's when disaster strikes. Her sudden shift in weight sends the stool toppling over. She tries to grab the bookshelf to catch herself but the shelf only tilts forward with the added weight. She lets go with a scream and lurches backwards, towards the open space just beyond the balcony and the ground floor six stories below.

Meenah hates to admit it, but she kind of saw that comin'. Her not bein' able to reach, that is. Not the fallin'--

Shit she's falling.

Her breath catches in her throat and the years spent in private martial arts training with the head of the Imperial Navy kick into gear. It's not an assassination attempt or a courtly duel but, well, the skills still apply.

Meenah grabs her before she can go flying off of the balcony. She barely manages to keep from plummeting along with her, arms twined around her waist as she throws herself backwards to counterbalance the sudden shift in weight. It's still a close call and Meenah can feel her librarian's heart pounding like the frantic thrashing of a stranded fish's tail.

She stares up at Meenah, her cheeks flushed and her lips parted. There are tears in the backs of her eyes and she looks absolutely terrified. There's a book in her shaking hands, so at least the attempt was somewhat successful. She looks like she can't decide whether she wants to cry or laugh and eventually seems to decide that crying is the more apppropriate behavior.

"Oi, you," Meenah murmurs, frowning a little and shifting her against her hip. She's holding her like a child, or rather, a very young adolescent troll and her weight is oddly fitting against her body. Her arms are wrapped tightly around Meenah's neck and her breath is coming in shuddery little gasps like she's a sailor fished straight from the waves of a wreck. "Are you good? S'ok, I caught you."

She's warm against Meenah's icy skin, and her thighs squeeze gently against her hips as she clings to her-- she's shaking like an earthquake and issa little frightening. Meenah tries to set her down but she won't let go; Meenah cuddles her close instead of shaking off, waiting to speak until her breathing goes back to something resembling normal.

"C'mon, Angelfish, you gotta say somefin'." She says, finally, feeling the weight of her beginning to get heavy.

"Thank you," She breathes, eyes wide. "Thank you, thank you so much-- I can't even begin to repay you."

Meenah groans and rolls her eyes, biting the corner of her lower lip. She's perfect. Absolutely perfect. Perfect against her, perfect in her arms, like someone sculpted her to fit there. Her face is close enough that Meenah can smell the beeswax of her chapstick and the surprisingly warm scent of her perfume--

She lets out a slow breath, a slow nervous, shaky breath because fuck all this isn't fair. And then she decides, fuck all, I just saved her life so I can get away with it. And then she kisses her. Kisses her as best she can when she's still struggling not the drop her over the balcony. But it's still a damn good kiss-- running her tongue over her lower lip and teasing her fangs-- all that business. She makes a shocked noise but doesn't try to shove her away which is really preeeeettttttty nice.

It's a short, relatively chaste, kiss. Just long enough that Meenah ends up with chapstick on her lips and the little librarian ends up with smudges of pink lipstick on her face when she pulls away.

"I-- I'm so sorry, I never-- I mean-- Please don't--" She's even more flustered now that Meenah's kissed her instead of saved her life. "I never do that sort of thing, please don't think anything less of me!"

"C'mere Angelfish," Meenah breathes against her lips, wonderin' how bad it'd be just to keep kissing her. "You're fine. You need me to get someone?"

"No." She says, blushing so virulently her skin temperature has to have risen by at least eight degrees. Or would that murder her? Ugh she doesn't know she's not a fucking doctor. "No, no I'll be fine."

Meenah smiles at her in her least-threatening manner. "Good. I'd reelly hate to see you upset."

"...Could you put me down now, please?"

"What's in it for me?"

"I don't press sexual assault charges."

"Oi. Oi, Angelfish, I saved your fuckin' life. Don't pull the fuckin' assault card on me." Meenah wrinkles her nose and flutters her gills angrily. But she puts her back on the ground all the same, making sure she can stand straight before she steps away.

Not that it'd work to file a report or anyfin'. At all. 'Oh hello officers, I'd like to report the Heiress for kissing me in the library. Oh. Oh, yes, I'm so sorry. I forgot what an honor that is. No, no I don't think I need to serve jail time for blaspheming the Empire.'.

The librarian straightens out her skirt and adjust her cardigan and tries to take a few steps back towards the bookshelf. Sadly, it becomes reelly quickly evident that she's gotta problem with her ankle 'cause she's not puttin' any weight on it at all.

"Y'alright?" Meenah asks, looming over her shoulder and taking her by the arms.

"Fine. Just turned my ankle a little." She says, smiling a little nervously, looking more than a little embarrassed. "I can be such a klutz-- I can't believe I did that, I'm so sorry--"

And then, to Meenahs utter horror, she sets the stepladder back upright and once more attempts to grab the book off the shelf. She attempts to grab the book off of the shelf while standing on one foot.

"Yeah, no," Meenah grumbles, easily lifting her off of the stool and slinging her into her arms like a load of timber. "I'm not leavin' you up here all alone."

"Put me down." She squawks but Meenah ignores her. Yeah she does not want a dead librarian on her conscience. Lettin' her try to get her a book and fallin' to her death would be a reel fuckin' tragedy.

* * *

The librarian refuses to tell her where the infirmary is so Meenah's forced to leave her at the front desk with her ankle propped up on a spare chair, glaring venomously at her. She shows her fangs when Meenah attempts to apologize and it's reelly fuckin' cute but telling her that only gets a grimace.

"I'm completely fine," She says, for the umpteenth time. "It's just rolled. You don't need to take care of me!"

"Not taking care of you," Meenah mutters, rolling her eyes and huffing. "Jus' avoiding a lawsuit. Thassall."

She looks just a little disappointed which is reelly, reelly encouraging. Meenah wants to kiss her again just to make that face a little less sad. "Well that's comforting."

"I-- I uh. I feel reelly that you got hurt 'cod of me." She mutters, huffing a little. "I-- I don't apologize. Ever. But. Y'know. It was not my attention to cause you an inconvenience."

To translate from Empress speak to informal Alternian: "I fucked up. Sorry."

She leaves her new companion with an admonition to stay put, she'll be fine, blah blah blah. Her librarian agrees a little mulishly and shifts anxiously in her chair. Meenah starts to shuffle out of the library without so much as a goodbye.

From behind her, the librarian clears her throat. Meenah stops dead in her tracks and turns to face her, raising her eyebrows. She's blushing a little again and then smiles a little bashfully.

"Yeah, Angelfish?" Meenah asks, raising her eyebrows. "Whaddya need?"

She swallows a few times and then glances at the floor. "Does this mean that we're not going out tonight?"

"Weren't you playing hard to get?" Meenah asks with a snort, raising her eyebrows.

She sniffs and then goes back to perusing the book in her lap. "You ruined that attempt by saving my life and then kissing me."

"...Take a rain check. "Meenah says after an awkwardly long pause. "I don't want a cripple as a girlfriend."

"That's incredibly insensitive." She says, looking absolutely scandalized. "I cannot believe you think that's acceptable to say--"

Meenah leaves before she can catch the rest of the lecture. The only point she cares about is she's got a hot date sometime in the near future and all because she nearly killed her. This is clearly a match made in someone's really fucked up version of heaven.

* * *

Dinner that night is less than interesfin'. Meenah sits across the room from her Ancestor, who always has a way of makin' her feel like a reel idiot. She wants to bite her face off every time she looks her in the eye, but she also wants to cry becod fuck all how is she so powerful and pretty and all those fuckin' things that people are always complimentin' her on. The Empress that is. Not her.

No one ever compliments Meenah on any of that. Possibly becod whenever she's in public she makes a point of not sayin' a word and just glaring as hard as she can. She slouches over her plate and stabs at her fennel grilled tilapia in an herbed wine butter reduction. Why the fuck is she even here?

She glares at the dean of the Academy when he attempts to be jovial with her. She hisses at the college's president when he asks her if she'd like to sit in on classes the next day and she positively snarls at the Academy's head of psychiatric care when she calmly asks if Meenah has anyfin' she'd like to talk about.

When they leave the Naval Academy's formal dining room to return to the Royal Quarters, the Empress all but tells their guards to go fuck themselves. In reality she dismisses them with a flutter of her wrist and a softly spoken command of: "You are no longer required."

Shit. That's never a good sign. It's also never a good sign when her Ancestor drapes an arm over her shoulders and cuddles her close. Meenah makes a noise like a trod upon violin that's simultaneously being chewed upon by a rabid bunny rabbit and tries to squirm away.

"Meenah, my darling little girl," She says, sweetly, running a hand down the back of her head. "I hate to be critical because you know how much I adore you, but, perhaps we might want to consider recollecting our manners?"

"Don't be a bitch," Meenah grumbles, narrowing her eyes and trying, futilely to pull away. "We both know I'm not gonna listen'."

"And we both know that if you fail to live up to my expectations, I will be more than happy to find a suitable replacement." The Empress says, calmly, raising her eyebrows and giving Meenah an affectionate, motherly smile. "Don't test me, my little darling."

"You've spent too much fuckin' time on me to off me now," Meenah snarls, struggling to throw off her arm as it tightens to a choking pressure around her chest. "Don't fuck with me."

"Meenah." She coos, sweetly. "If you can't be good, I'll have to consider locking you up into your quarters for the rest of our visit and I don't think you'd like that very much."

Normally, she wouldn't really give a fuck but, well. Ugh. Stupid librarians.

"Fine," She mutters, showing her teeth. "I'll act just like you, how's that?"

"Splendid." She purrs, giving her a tight hug and kissing her cheek. "Don't disappoint me, Meenah."

Ugh.

If there's one thing she can safely say, it's that she reelly hates her life. Well. At least there's a hot librarian down the hall. And that kind of makes the three hour long lecture from the Empress while her maid brushes her hair sorta worth it.

Not entirely. But a little.


	3. Meenah gets sorta creepy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meenah renews her attempts to seduce Aranea, gets into a fight with her bodyguard and inadvertently cripples someone. At least I hope it's inadvertently. Wouldn't put it past her to do that on purpose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy I finally updated! This chapter was like pulling teeth-- I don't know why. It was hard to hit Meenah's voice correctly, so sorry in advance for the copious amount of poorly accented speech. 
> 
> Insert disclaimer here about how I was diagnosed with another chronic pain disorder, started my junior year of college and only had three weeks for summer vacation between my hardcore internship and classes starting up. Also insert another disclaimer about running a Shakespeare Troupe that takes up 10% of my campus.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

Meenah wakes up in a fog of befuzzlement, eyes unwillin' to open all the way. Fuck this she wants to go back to sleep. But when she glances at the clock she sees that it's already like eight and fuck that she's always up by six. She likes bein' up by six. Seein' the sunrise and bein' the first one and breakfast and 'n' the pool 'n' all that shit. She always has to take a nap 'n' all but, well, s'nothin' like a 2-4pm nap in her private aquarium surrounded by her favorite fishies. 

Fish. She corrects herself, scowling. Not fishies. Fish. Ugh fuck this. Meenah rolls over in bed, her skin slipping against the pink silk of her sheets like she's water n' they're seaweed. Her comforter was kicked to the floor during the night, as always, and she's left in a nest of overstuffed pillows. 

She sits up, slowly, stretching her neck from side to side like she's gotta rubber band that's gotta go around a lotta shit and she doesn't want it to snap and hurt her hand. Her maids are standin' across the room, all of them lookin' at her like she's some sorta feral beast that could attack at any given time. Which is, y'know, _true_ but she still hates them for it. A lot. 

"Coffee." She snarls, collapsing back onto the mattress and rolling around on the silk. " _Now_."

One of her maids, the one that's lasted the longest becod she knows better'n' take her seariously, bows and slips from the room. The remaining two keep staring at her, frightened. Probably becod they've been provided by the Academy, not the palace, and they don't know how to behave in fronta her. 

She closes her eyes and clutches one of her pillows close to her chest. There's nothin' better than sleeping in after a long night and she was de _fin_ itely up late last night. Her brains was stuck on the subject of libraries and books and librarians and cute little spiders that got washed up on the tide. Reelly cute little spiders. So instead'a goin' to bed like she usually does-- nofin' better to do at night in the palace, after all-- she'd read. 

Read an _entire book_. An entire fucking _book_. And the librarian had been totally right-- the book kicked searious ass. Totally worth her almost dyin' over. Okay not reely but-- well-- 

It was good. Good. _Good_. Good in a way she doesn't normally associate with books. It was epic and tragic and exciting and just-- great. Great on so many fuckin' levels. She didn't know that shit like that could happen on the ocean in boats or that pirates were so fuckin' cool--

But the only reason she read it, reelly, was becod she knows that if she shows up without finishin' the book, the librarian wouldn't wanna talk to her. So now that she's finished with the book she can’t go back and talk to her about... sunken ships. And. Divers. And. Um. Things.

It reelly was a great book. Reelly. But, well, she just sorta' wants to scurry off to the library and talk to the little librarian, whatever her name is. Prolly somefin' like Delilah. Or Daffodil. Or Daisy. Or, well... Orchid? Yeah those are just flower names, that's stupid. 

Maybe she's named after somefin' famous, like a place or an ocean or, whale, anyfin' pretty and cute and delectable like a sugar flower painted to look like the reel fuckin' deal, like those roses on her last wrigglin' day cake.

Meenah wants to find out what her name is more than anyfin' she's wanted in her life. Well. Anyfin' she's wanted in her life that she can remember not gettin' immediately.

As she contemplates the debatable values of goin' right away to hunt her down with a harpoon or waitin' a bit and tryin' to look a little, y'know... impressive. Dignified. Hard to get. A reel catch, y'know? Not like "oh look there's that doofy lookin' useless excuse for'n heiress, why hasn't someone murdered her yet?".

Yeah, she wants to do the impressive fin'. Make her Ancestresses proud and bring honor to her family line or some shit. She wants to y'know. Be a badass bitch and not let anyone fuck with her. 

Not that her librarian is trying to fuck with her or anyfin' but even inadvertent fuckery is still fuckery. 

Her personal maid comes back into the room with a brisk three-part knock. Meenah barely glances up to acknowledge her becod, well, she _is_ a servant, but she does mutter a quick thank you when her coffee is finally in her hands, the mug warming hands that she dunn't usually remember are cold in the first place.

It's been made just how she likes it, hot to the point of pain and full of sugar. It's sweet as it singes her lounge and she curls around the cup like she's a snail 'n' it's her shell. 

She doesn't say a word to her staff as she works to finish her coffee. They begin to scurry around the room in an effort to prepare her for the morning-- findin' clothes and jewelry and shoes 'n' all that shit. 

But she ignores all that shit in favor of pullin' on an old shirt and a ratty pair of pants and wanderin' out of the door without a word. She leaves her coffee half-finished on her bedside table and vanishes.

* * *

It takes a bit of wanderin' but eventually she finds her way outta the imperial quarters and then shuffles off into the academy earnest. She'd fuck anyone for a swim righttabout now. Well... maybe not _anyone_ , y'know? Girl's gotta have standards. Anyone green or above would be okay. Anyfin' lower bloodwise and they'd better not be expectin' to live after the encounter. 

It turns out that she finds the pool before fucking becomes necessary. In retrospect, usin' sex to find a fuckin' pool at the fuckin' naval university seems more'n a little stupid. Course they're gonna have a pool for, y'know... swimming? Planning naval exercises? Whatever.

She pushes the pool door open and lets out a noise that's _far_ too sexual when the smell of clorine washes over her. Mmmm that is _nice_ \-- reel nice. She's a saltwater woman at the end of the day but, whale... a clean pool is a happy pool 'n' after all, she dunnt wanna be swimmin' in a gross mess. 

The pool is smaller 'n' what she's used to. There's a lotta pools back at the palace. All of 'em connected too, between each room. Her pool in her wing is absolutely fuckin' awesome, twenty feet deep and full of water that's piped up straight from the ocean to. The whole thing is fulla fish she's managed to capture while out swimmin' and she's workin' on building them all a reef. It was a 16th wrigglin' day gift from the Empress-- an attempt to bribe her into likin' her when they first met. 

It didn't work but the pool is still reelly fuckin rad with mosicac patterns worked into the walls 'n' floor and a bit of white sand 'long the bottom--

She misses it. A lot. She wants to cuddle up there, treadin' water and vistin' with her favorite fishies. Fish. What-fuckin'-ever. And she wants to, y'know, curl up in her own sauna and sleep in her own bed and read her own books.

Not that there aren't benefits to bein' here, of course. But they've been tourin' the planet for what feels like forfuckinever and-- well-- she's kinda scared that all her babies are gonna be dead. 

Ah whale. Meenah crosses to the edge of the pool and sheds her clothes without second thought. She's never swum in a swimsuit before and she's not about to start just 'cause she's not in her palace. 

There isn't anyone in the room at this time of day-- prolly 'cod they're all in classes or whatever the fuck it is they do around here. Either way, bein' naked in public isn't a crime.

For her, that is. She can get away with it 'cod she's the Heiress. But she's pretty sure that anyone else would be in a whole messa trouble. Mostly becod if anyone sees her naked she can have 'em executed on the spot.

Yay for priveledge.

Meenah dives into the water without botherin' to take in a breath. The icy water burns against her gills but she swims through it without any need for concentrated thought. There inn't anyfin better than this in the world. At least nofin' she's found yet. Not that she's been lookin' too hard.

Water rushes up around her in an endless swirl of glassine color and bubbles. She feels it tingle against her skin and the salt burns more than a little but it's as familiar as sleep at this point in her life. She stars up at the ripples swirling above her, water rushing to fill the void her body created when she dove in. 

There's nothing around her but the faintest rush of water in her ears and the comforting feel of water embracing her like a long lost lover. She swims along the bottom of the pool, her stomach scraping up against the lines lap lanes painted there, looming in the distance like one dimensional hammerhead sharks. When she makes it from one end of the pool to the other, she turns back and swims in again, shivering each time that water flows through her aquatic air sacs. 

She misses her fish right 'bout now. Reelly misses 'em. Misses the way that they y'know, swim next to her. The way they brush against her and slither close and gleam in the light from the skylights above her private pool. She'd give almost anyfin' to see 'em right now. Fuck-- how turtley reeldiculous is this shit? Her best fronds-- friends-- are _fish_.

Meenah swims laps back and forth in a never ending Mobius loop, her brain stuck in the same circuit. The chlorine burns her gills just a little but her body knows how to process it so she doesn't let it give her too much trouble. 

Sometimes she forgets just how hard it is to be her. And it's only in the water that she remembers how to breathe right-- how good it feels to be nofin' more than a little fish in a big sea.  
She kinda' wonders if this is what her little librarian feels like in her big room of books. It's nice to imagine that, just maybe, someone somewhere feels the same way she does. 

Meenah swims for a good hour before she notices any time has passed. It feels good to be totally submerged, wrapped up in the water like it's a blanket. Sometimes it's reelly fuckin' useful to be able to breathe underwater. Be able to be alone 'n' free for as long as she likes. Breathin' in the cool comfort of... um... water? Fuck she doesn't know that many metaphors for this shit. Either way she's all alone and it's kick ass. 

But. Y'know. She'd kinda like to have company sometimes. Just sometimes. Maybe. Kind of. 

She swims until she notices that there's a hand stickin' down from the water's surface. Whale. That's... unexpected. Meenah grumbles to herself and strokes her way up thirteen feet to the surface. 

Her head breaks the water's surface and she gasps, deeply, in order to... y'know... get her lungs workin' again. She yawns a little, jaw crackin' and stares across the pool at whoever the hell just interrupted her. 

"The fuck d'you want?" She growls, narrowin' her eyes. 

Meenah swims over to the edge of the pool where the grumpy fishstick is standin', rising out of the water just enough to hear him. He's sayin' somefin that doesn't seem at all important but she deigns to listen anyways.

"Do you have _permission_ to be here?" He booms in a voice that sounds like a canon going off in a sunken ship and then hitting a landmine. It's reelly fun. "I think it might be best that you come along with me."

"..." Meenah stares at him, blankly, her gills fluttering softly like seaweed in the current of an isolated bay. She tilts her head and, without blinking, gives him a curious trill.

"If you think you're going to get away with cutting class--"

"Notta student." She scoffs, ducking underwater to keep herself from gettin' cold. "N'my problem."

He reaches down to grab her and actually _grabs her horn_. She lets out a screech that's as loud and as furious at a rabid howler monkey. He doesn't let go with is reelly surprisin' because she's the freakin' Heiress you don't touch the Heiress you _don't touch the Heiress_ he is _TOUCHING THE HEIRESS_ \--

And that is, of course, when he his hand cut off. Not by her. Becod-- you know-- she's in a pool. Unarmed. Only way she woulda have gotten his hand off was by chewin' it off.

Which takes like, fuckin' forever and uggggh it's so gross, blood gets everywhere and it's just _nasty_. Plus, y'know, he'd be tryin' to fight her off all the time and shit. No, his hand is cut clean off by a rather sharp sword.

It falls into the water in a flurry of bright purple blood. Meenah makes a face and swims away from it. She glances up, suspiciously, to see who her unwanted help is.

Ugghhh this guy. Meenah hates this guy. He's always like 'it's my job m'am', 'don't lock me in a closet', 'seriously Meenah I'm your bodyguard', 'no I'm not stalking you', 'what is wrong with you', 'put down the pepper spray' 'ow what the hell that really hurts!', 'no I won't make shitty fish puns' and 'yknow. That sort of boring shit.

"I locked you in a closet for a reason y'know," She says, sulkily, ignoring the screams of pain from her attacker as he stares at his severed hand floating in the water. "Go 'way. No one likes you."

"It's my _job_ to protect you. What would you have done if I hadn't been here?" Rufioh asks, with his stupid fuckin' accent all like 'ooh look at me I'm foreign and I have a Mohawk.' No one gives a fuck Rufioh you look like a tool. 

"Dunno--"

"I'm calling security and having the Imperial Guard remove you both!" The dude gasps, culutching his bleeding stump to his chest. Ohhh yeah like that's gonna work. He picks up the phone and dials security. 

Meenah treads water and continues to growl at him. Him meanin' Rufioh because fuck that guy. That other dude can go die or whatever.

"Meenah, I'm your bodyguard, you can't keep locking me in closets and barricading the door with furniture. The Empress doesn't like it."

"Wow look at all the fucks I give about what she wants." Meenah grumbles, diving under the water's surface. There's a group of nervous recruits waiting in the doorway of the pool room. Meenah hisses at them and her gills flourish out. "Where the hell've you been anyway?"

"Nowhere. Doing my job, maybe--"

"Your job is to stalk me. Whasswrong, big lady get bored of you or somefin?"

"No," He mutters, sulkily, kickin' at the pool linoleum which totally means yes, the Empress got bored of fuckin' him and threatened to rip his bulge off again. 

Meenah rolls her eyes and dives back underwater. Whale. That's what you get for suckin' up to someone like her. She's totally fucked up-- why the hell'd anyone wanna fuck that guy he's the _worst_. She remains at the bottom of the pool 'till his stupid sword sticks down into the water and swishes around. Meenah immediately swims to the surface. 

The guards are flooding into the room, armaments at the ready. Meenah stares at them like she has absolutely no idea what they're doin'. She slips underwater and swims to the edge of the pool. When she resurfaces, the guards are surrounding her in a semi-circle.

She blinks up at them. They stare back, solemn-- most of them with hands on the hilts of their swords. And that's when she lunges up out of the water, hissing and flailing her gills for all she's worth. They immediately take several steps back, either to avoid gettin' splashed or because they just realized what the hell they're fuckin' with. Which is the Heiress. Hell fuckin' yeah you don't mess with her.

One of them, presum'bly the captain of the guard, steps forward once she's sunk back down into the water. Her hair billows around her like a forest's worth of kelp, 'cept kelp that's been poorly brushed for years. She returns back up to greet him.

"Good Morning, Heiress." He murmurs, bowing. "Is there a problem?"

"Nuffin'. One of your boys tried to kick me outta the pool." Meenah mutters, growling a little until he looks properly obsequious and breaks eye contact. "Nitram took care of it."

"I see. Well. We're quite story to disturb you, Heiress."

"Fuck right you're sorry," Meenah growls. "Didn't you tell your fucking people that you were gonna have the Imperial family here? The fuck is up with that?"

"My sincerest apologies, Heiress--"

"You'd better feel lucky that I'm too tired to give a fuck or I'd be tellin' the Empress." Meenah threatens, letting her gills go wild in the water _mmm_ that feels good, ammirite? "Jus' make sure it innt gonna happen again, ok?"

"Of course, Heiress. I will ensure that all our staff is made known of your presence here."

"Damn straight," She growls, narrowing her eyes. And then it process what she means by full staff. "IF THIS HAPPENS TO ME AGAIN, I'M GONNA LIGHT YOU ON FIRE WITH MY BARE EYES."

That does the trick. They all bow and run out of the room, draggin' the guy who's missin' a hand along with him. Meenah cackles as wickedly as she can and splashes around. 

She swims for almost an hour more, luxuriatin' in the water until. Rufioh decides he's done with watchin' her. 

"It's lunchtime, Meenah, it's time to get out." He says, slowly, after repeatedly splashing at her. "C'mon, Meenah, I'm hungry. Don't be a dick."

Meenah glowers at him and sends a wave of water at his shoes. He continues to insistently shake the towel in her gen'ral direction until she grimaces and hauls herself out of the water. Ugh, what gives him the fuckin' right to boss her around. Issnot like he's not sleepin' with the Emperess or anyfin' (sarcasm, cue cackling at her fuckin' awesome internal monologue). 

She swims over to the edge of the pool with a few powerful strokes. The tiles at the edge of the pool are slick beneath her wet fingers and she growls a little as she tries to haul herself up. Eventually she gets herself out and lies like a dead herrin' on the pooldeck. Nitram grumbles under his breath. 

"Meenah, I'm going to kick you if you don't get up," He threatens, baselessly, since-- well-- he knows she can take 'im in a fight with her eyes closed. She huffs and gets to her feet, anyways, wringing the water out of her hair before accepting the towel. Part of her knows that, whale, she reelly shouldn't it's not like it's not anyifn' he hasn't seen before, honestly.

She wraps the towel around herself, pausin' only to wring somma the water out of her hair. There isn't any point 'n' puttin' her clothes back on becod fuck that shit, and she leaves Rufioh behind to gather her things. 

The second she's outta the pool room, she skitters down the hallway and takes as many sharp turns as she can in the hope of evadin' her fuckin' stupid shadow. Seariously fuck that guy. That's reel stalker grade shit.

Eventually she finds her way to the main lobby of the Academy, completely on the other side of the buildin' from their private quarters. It's good enuff for her and she slows to a casual saunter. 

The light streaming in from the rotunda's skylights is muted by stormclouds and if it were actually rainin', Meenah would have been outside in a matter of seconds. The only 'fin better than runnin' around naked in the rain is swimmin' in a pool fulla fish and the only fin' better than that is bein' in the ocean. 

She misses the ocean. Big and cozy and perfect 'n' everyfin' that she likes about the world. There inn't much she likes about the world, but the ocean makes up for all of it. 

Meenah's still starin' up at the skylight when she hears footsteps echoin' out across the marble, like the tail of a stranded dolphin slashing uselessly at wet sand in a desperate attempt to get back to the ocean's embrace. Norm'lly she'd choose not to acknowledge them becod, well, who the fuck cares who's down the hall? 

But she hears the footsteps _falter_ and that attracts her attention. She swivels her neck abruptly and hisses, her gills going out to their full flourish. 

"OH GOOD HEAVENS--" She screeches, a pile of books crashing to the floor as she throws up her hands to defend herself. "IF YOU SO MUCH AS TAKE ONE MORE STEP I AM GOING TO COVER YOU IN PEPER SPRAY I AM ARMED DO YOU HEAR ME AND I AM NOT AFRAID TO TAKE YOU DOWN I HAVE TAKEN SEVERAL CLASSES IN ANARCHY AND AM A SCHOLAR OF MANY HISTORICAL ASSASINATIONS--"

Acccccccccccck fuck. It would have to be the librarian, wouldn't it? Fuck this shit she should just move to troll Antarctica or some shit where there's nofin' but fish and penguins and ice and no one to fuck with her.

"Relax, Angelfish," Meenah mutters, reaching up and placing her hands against her neck in an attempt to make herself look a little less... pufferfish-y. "Not gonna eat you."

"...Well. I still have pepper spray." The librarian snaps, narrowing her eyes. "And _why_ don't you have any clothes on?"

Meenah gives her a curious stare and then grins. "Damn girl, you've got _sass_. I like it."

She huffs and stoops to pick up her books. Meenah shuffles over to help her but immediately gets stopped with a freezing glare. 

"I don't even know your name, kindly _do not flash me_." The librarian growls, her voice going up six octaves. "Put your pants on _please_."

"Im bein' completely honest with you, I've never had salmon tell minnow when it comes to my... ladybits." Yeah that's dolphinetly not the best way to refer to her genitals. But waterever. She was brought up to be a fuckin' lady and some habits are hard to krill. Like, y'know, usin' awful euphemisms for reproductive organs. 

The statement, however, does not garner the fear it normally merits. "That was an atrocious pun. I might have to fine you for the abuse of our shared language."

"Can the fine be you letting me take your fine ass out to dinner?"

"That was even worse." She grumbles, straightening up slowly. Meenah shrugs like this dosen't bug her at all becod, well, who cares. The librarian stands up, slowly, her books balanced against her chest in a tower of babel like confishueration. "You're a little ridiculous, aren't you?"

Meenah gives her a smirk and tosses her hair behind her shoulders, sendin' a spray of salinated water all around her. The librarian _shrieks_.

" _Don't you dare ruin these books_!" She yelps, tryin' to use her tiny little body as a shelter for the tomes. "They're _library books_!"

"Well I think _you're_ a library book because, girl, I am seariously checkin' you out."

"No! Stop! That's awful!" She squalls, shaking her head like it's gonna make it possible for Meenah to forget about the fact that she's such a _cutie_. "I'm not comfortable with this!"

"Awww, Angelfish, don't be that way--"

"I don't even know your name!" She says, grumpily, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder and snarling. Mmm fuck those are _great_ fangs. "And I am _certainly_ not used to being treated so _familiarly_ \--"

"Wow, and I'm turtlely not used to people being so mean when I tell them they're adorabble and want to take them to dinner!" Meenah grumbles, adjustin' her towel. "I jus' think you're pretty. And you seem kinda' nice and reelly smart. Thassall."

"...Well. That's an entirely differenet matter." She sniffs, her cheekbones glowing the vibrant blue of lapis lazuli. "Perhaps in the future you could consider beginning with that instead of proceeding with a course of events that are entirely too forward--"

"Ugggggh you're so hot but you just say so many words!" Meenah rolls her eyes. "I cannnnnn't do this, Angelfish. I'm naked and you're not hittin' on me--"

She cuts Meenah off with a tight-lipped glare that's jus' as bad as bein' stared down by a pissed off giant squid whose whale supper you just stole to feed to your lusus. "You're really not very good at this."

"Meenah Piexes is not used to takin' advice from lowly librarians."

"Yes, well, Aranea Serket didn't get where she is today by listening to Meenah Piexes, did she?" 

"...I dunno." Meenah eyes her, critically, not entirely sure where the fuck this conversation is goin'. "Um. Who's that?"

"ME." She screeches, loudly, stamping her feet. Meenah raises herself onto the balls of her feets and shakes out her hair in an instinctive attempt to make herself clearly known as the dominant party in this conversation because things are going south _fast_ but not in a good south like nearer to her vagina south. "And one day I am the single most important woman in this building so you had better be well aware of who I am!"

"Uh, excuse me Cuddlefish," Meenah growls crossing her arms over her breasts and jutting out a hip. "But I think I'm gonna be the most important woman in this buildin' one day so you had _better watch it_."

Aranea-- that's her name, right? Aranea? Arrrrrr-ahhhh-neigh--aaaaaaaa oh she's bored of this now, this isn't fun. 

"Is that a threat?"

"That depends on if you're sayin' no to dinner or not." Meenah mutters, narrowin' her eyes becod no one says no to her _no one_. Whale. Not anemone who's lived, y'know?

Shit that was a fuckin' awful pun.

"I'm not saying _no_ \--" She's backpedaling, furiously, and Meenah watches with a cheerful grin as her face goes through like sixteen billion and seventeen emotions at once. "I just-- perhaps-- I'm not entirely comfortable-- Goodness me-- I just don't know-- Shouldn't we-- I'm a rather conservative-- I just-- I really-- DEAR ME IS THAT THE TIME I MUST GO?"

Yeah. Yeah that's adorabubble. "Is... Issat a quesiton or a statement?"

"I DON'T KNOW-- STOP ASKING ME THINGS! I WANT TO LIVE!"

"Thassalittle over dramatic." Meenah mutters, rollin' her eyes and slouching over, making an attempt to shove her hands into her pockets 'n only realizin' once her towel starts to slip off that she's not wearin' pants. She glances to readjust her towel and, of course, that's when the librarian-- Araaaaaaaneaaaahhhh weird name ugh-- turns 'n' runs off. 

Damn. For a girl in stiletto boots she can _haul ass_. 

"I KNOW WHERE YOU WORK." Meenah shouts after her. "AND WHEN I REMEMBER WHERE THE FUCK I LEFT MY PANTS, I'M GONNA COME GET YOU!"

"Please don't!" She calls down the stairs as she scurries off. "I don't like being harassed!"

"TOUGH SHIT!" Meenah yells. "I HAVE VERY LITTLE EMPATHY!"

Is true. She dunn't. Really, really, really dunn't. Not a trait she was bred with. And when she says _bred_ she's pretty sure that any of her sisters that showed any signs of compassion or anyfin' were eaten. 

Hahahaha that's what you get for bein' nice, amirite?

* * * 

Meenah skitters off to the royal quarters as fast as she can, not exactly _keen_ to get caught by the Empress. Ugh. That shit'd take fuckin' forever-- blah blah bluh lecture bluh blah blah borin' things lecture bluh. 

The stupid bodyguard is waitin' outside of her room. He's still got her clothes, though, so that's somefin'. 

"Meenah you can't keep doing this-- you're going to end up getting yourself massacred one day--"

"NO ONE CARES, NITRAM." She shouts, a little more loudly that is reelly called for. Before he can do anyfin' about it, though, she throws open the door and dives inside. 

The maids are still waitin' for her when she gets inside, which is kinda useful becod her hair's just a fuckin' mess. She consents to sittin' down and lettin' them brush it out. It takes 'em the betta part of an hour to get it nice again and it's reelly quite a feat that they manage to get the snarls out.

Her maid, the nice one she brought from home not one of the annoyin' fake ones, deftly braids it back and ties it off.

"Good 'nuff." Meenah grumbles as means of thanks. She stuffs herself into a low cut shirt and manages to find the one pair of pants that _doesn't_ make her ass look fuckin' huge. 

Her maid finds her shoes, the pink ones that she's colored all over, y'know-- her favorite ones. She stuffs her feet into 'em and yanks the book 'bout shipwrecks off her nightstand.

"Dinner is at seven tonight, Madame, please try not to be tardy--"

"CAN'T MAKE IT!" Meenah shouts as she clambers out of her bedroom window, knowing full whale that her stupid bodyguard is gonna be waitin' on her outside the door. "I'M COERCING A LIBRARIAN INTO DATING ME."

"You have nine hours!" Her maid grumbles after her, exasperated. "And you're a lovely young woman, I hardly think you'll be _that_ unsuccessful."

"WHAT PART ABOUT LIBRARIAN SCREAMS SEXAULLY ADVENTEROUS!?" Meenah grumbles, finally settin' foot onto the ground. "TELL NITRAM I'M ASLEEP IN THE CLOSET."

"Of course, Madame." Her maid salutes her and then slams the windows shut. "Best of luck."

* * *

Meenah scurries off to the library through the Academy's front doors. The Empress is comin' outta one of the classrooms and she fixes Meenah with a horrbubble glower. Meenah glares back until they both notice Jared-- fuckin' Jared-- comin' out of the room behind her. 

They both snap their faces into friendly smiles. Meenah's innt nearly as convincin' as the Empress's; she gives her a warm smile that nearly convinces her she's got a heart instead of a frigid, singed, horrific lump of evil.

"Hello sweetheart," She coos in a voice that's like poisoned honey poured into a pomegranate martini that's got waaaaay too much sugar in it. "What are you up to today?"

"Nofin'."

"That's hardly a good thing to be doing. Do you need me to find you something to do?"

Meenah scowls and clutches her book to her chest. "I didn't mean nofin' nofin'. I meant like I'm doin' nofin' right _now_ becod I'm goin' to the library to do somefin' there." 

"...You're going to the library, sweetheart?" The Empress asks, condescendingly which is a greaaaaaat pun. "Are you sure? Can you... can you _read_?"

Yeah, Meenah's reelly excited to kill her one day. It's gonna be great to see her dead. "Yeah. Yeah I can read. I just read this and she's gonna give me a nother one."

" _She_?"

"The librarian." Meenah mutters, awkwardly. "The librarian gave me this one to read, yesterday... and I read it... and it was really good... so... I'm gonna go see about gettin' another."

"Well... I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised, my dear." The Empress pats her head and smooths down the worst of her frizzy hair. "But I'm glad you're finally making a serious attempt to better yourself."

"Yeahwatever." Meenah mutters, shuffling away as quickly as she can. "Bye."

The Empress dismisses her with a wave of her hand, pink diamond rings glintin' in the lights. Meenah scowls and considers, not for the first time, how great it would feel to bite all her fingers off. 

As she makes her way to the end of the hall, she hears them-- Jared and the Empress-- start talkin' about her. 

"Which librarian is she talking about?" The Empress hisses, darkly. "I don't want her associating with anyone..."

There's prob'ly a hand gesture there, but she can't hear hands. No one can hear hands-- that woulld just be turtley reeldiculous. 

"I'm reasonably sure she's talking about the _Serket_ girl, Your Grace. Nothing like her ancestore, I assure you..." His voice trails off as Meenah continues to skitter away, pretendin' that she can't hear a word they're sayin'-- like it matters. "Hardly anything to be concerned about..."

Good. She likes it when they don't think she's doin' anything to be concerned about. Usually means she can light somefin' on fire before anyone notices. 

* * *

The librarian's nowhere to be (sea?) found when Meenah fin-ally finds her way back to the library. Instead there's someone else at the desk-- some stupid guy with fuckin' ugly hair. 

"Oi. Where's Serket?" She slams her hands onto the countertop and flutters her gills. He turns, surprised, but instead of lookin' scared just sort of sneers at her. Meenah snarls back, resistin' the urge to rip his face off. "Not gonna ask again, buddy, where's the _SERKET_."

"In the back office!" He says a little too quickly to be totally okay with the way things are progressin'. "She's in the back office working on some filing!"

Meenah makes it across the lobby before she realizes she doesn't know what in the fresh hell an office would be in this stupid place. "...WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT?"

"Upstairs! Upstairs! Go upstairs to the right!" He yelps, loudly. It isn't at all manly and Meenah cackles, wickedly as she runs up the stairs. 

It takes a bit of effort to figure out where the fuck she's going. There's just so many books, ugh. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of books.

But then-- THEN-- there's a door. A glass door. Through which Meenah can clearly see her prey. Her cute little spidery prey. Wearin' awesome as fuck black stiletto boots that go up to her knees, a kickass black velvet dress that doesn't reelly leave enough to the imagination which is sad 'cod she likes imagination but she sorta looks like a cat and--

Meenah must go to her. Immediately. Go to her now, just like-- RIGHT NOW--

She throws herself against the office door. The glass reverberates with a 'thunnnnnkkkkkkkk' thatssa little longer than she'd expected. The shockwaves are strong enough that she feels the skin of her face shake a little. It's jarring enough that she loses the ability to breathe for a few seconds. 

Aranea jolts back from the paperwork she's workin' on with a yowl and then a loud, furious hiss. S'not nearly as impressive as Meenah's defense mechanisms but, well, it's _adequate_.

"IF YOU WERE A LIBRARY BOOK I'D CHECK YOU OUT AND THEN GO INTO DEBT 'CAUSE I'D NEVER WANT TO RETURN YOU." Meenah shouts, not entirely sure whether or not the room's been soundproofed. Apparently not, becod Aranea winces and rips off her glasses, throwing them down onto her desk.

Cod she looks hot when she's mad. Reelly hot. Meenah smacks her head on the glass again in an ill-advised attempt to get inside.

"That's awful!" She growls, stomping over to the door and jabbin' at the glass. "You should just go out and buy your own copy, then! Don't deprive the literate public the honor of reading--"

"I'M TRYING TO HIT ON YOU. STOP MAKIN' THIS DIFFICULT, ANGELFISH."

"MY NAME IS ARANEA! And don't _yell_ you're in the library."

"YOU'RE IN _MY_ LIBRARY OF HOT WOMEN I'D LIKE TO BANG."

Aranea sighs, pinchin' the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. They're gorgeously shaped and painted a brilliant shade of cobalt. "Do you _reelly_ see this getting you anywhere with me?"

"Yesh." Meenah says, without hesitation. Aranea's givin' her a look that's turtley fanfuckingtastically exhiliratin'. "I get whatever I want, whenver I want."

She sighs, heavily, and pulls the door open. Meenah tumbles inside, landing in an undignified heap of braids and deniem. "I don't think so, your Highness."

"But-- I reelly like you!" Meenah protests, rollin' onto her back and glaring up at her. She turns bright blue and immediately reaches up to fidget with her hair.

The silence endures a bit too long and Meenah starts to twitch just a little. Aranea looks like she's about to cry which makes Meenah feel like cryin' because, whale, she doesn't want to upset her, she wants to buy her wine and maybe some cake because girls like cake, don't they? She likes cake and _she's_ a girl so logic would dictate that Aranea would like cake too--

"I-- I just-- You're the _Heiress_." She finally manages to squeak out, nofin' like her precious candor. "And-- all things considered, I just don't feel at all-- at all worthy of such valued attentions--"

Meenah stomps her feet onto the floor, shoelaces shakin' with the force. "Ugggggh whyyyy aren't you just sayin' YES." 

"I just-- I mean-- I'm a librarian for a reason! I don't want to go into politics!" She bends down and rips the book out of Meneah's arms. "And that's a first edition kindly don't use it as a teddy bear, that's hardly appropriate don't you know how valuable this sort of thing is? I do hope you enjoyed it though, do let me know if I can find you anything else--"

She keeps talkin' as she shuffles backwards awkwardly, her eyes goin' just a little too wide with fear. Meenah stares after her, eyes narrowin'.

Whut. _Whut_. Meenah feels her gills flutter furiously and without thinking about how reelly stupid it's gonna look, reaches up and places her palms against them to force them to lay flat. Stupid gills gettin' all over the place and causin' a ruckus when there doesn't need to be any ruckus. There is a very easy solution to this problem. Possibly-- no she can't think of a pun on that-- a eely easy solution? No? No that's lame. Reelly is better. She watches the librarian girl shuffle off with the keen eyes of a shark who's just smelled blood in the water.

Oh hell no this isn't gonna fly. She's sayin' no, isn't she? Sayin' no reelly diplomatically and bein' all koi. Meenah sorta likes that. Likes the koi part not the 'no' part becod no isn't somefin at all acceptable. It only takes her a few seconds to get on her feet but, of fuckin' course, in the interim she's managed to vanish. Ugh.

It takes her a whale of a time to find out where her little Bluefish has gone. Norm'lly she wouldn't have that much difficulty trackin' down a fish. Specially a blue one since blue ones are super fuckin' obvious in the ocean, all that grey shit and then BAM bluefish. 

But it's a little harder in here. It's fuckin' huge for a start and, whale, in an ocean at least you can see things. Here there's nothing but shelves and shelves and more shelves and some tables and shelves and someone's forgotten coffee cup and more shelves and two dudes making out in the dictionary section and books and shelves and books--

However, she is a fish on a fission. Er. An heiress on a mission. And she is not about to be bulgeblocked for the first time in her life, no fuckin' way. 

Eventually, one of the shelvin' fish is able to tell her where to go. 

"Miss Serket? The Rare Book room!" She squawks, dumping a cart of books onto her feet as she attempts-- and fails-- to keep her composure in the face of such fuckin' awesomness. "Downstairs on the left!"

Meenah skitters down the stairs two at a time. The dudefish at the front desk points her in the right direction without needin' to be asked and Meenah knocks over only a _.few_ bookshelves on her way there. 

The rare book room is big and sorta fuckin' awesome. The ceiling's covered in gold leaf and the windows are glazed over so that no reel sunlight's comin' inside and everyfin's sort of... weird. Like she's underwater or somefin. And it's so fuckin' quiet that she can hear her own heart poundin'.

The little librarian is working att'a well-lit table in the back of the room, her hair pulled back off of her face, showing off the thin, graceful column of her neck and the faintest gleam of sapphires in her ears. Her glasses are perched on the very tip of her nose and she's wearin' a white coat and gloves. Her face is screwed up inna tight look of utter consternation, as if she's just found a new deep sea rift 'n' is reelly excited but sorta nervous too. 

"Sup." She says, resting her palms on the table on either side of the document she's lookin' at. "You're runnin' away from me, aren't you?"

She glances up from the book, slowly, her face going blank with turtle shock. Er-- total shock. Turtle just sounds kinda' stupid. Either way she looks like she just got shot point blank like six times, y'know, like everyone's face looks when that happens. 

" _What_ are you doing here?" She snaps, narrowing her eyes until only three of her seven pupils on the left side are visible. "You don't have clearance for this--"

Meenah rolls her eyes and reaches out to turn the book around. S'an old book. S'reelly old book. Prolly valuable or somefin too--

"Is this worth money?" She asks, giving the book a grumpy glower. "Cause it'd better be worth somefin' if you're _ignoring me for it_."

"You don't even know my name." She mutters, glaring and slapping Meenah's hands away from the pages. "I have to work. I'm happy to give you assistance with matters related to the library--"

"I want to go on a date with you." She says, raisin' her eyebrows like she reeelly does this all the fuckin' time. She totally doesn't. That's her Ancestor-- the E'mpress is the one who's always got a new catch of the day. 'Cept for Rufioh. Rufioh's the one who she allllways goes back to. Not that she ever mentions 'im or anyfin. 

There's jussa lotta sex goin' on behind doors. Or in the pool. She's p. sure that its happenin' in the pool. Which is p. much why she insisted on gettin' her own pool because gross.

"That's nice." The librarian says, and she goes back to lookin' at her book, pagin' through it like it's more important than Meenah or somefin'. "But I don't have the time."

"Not right now, duh," Meenah grumbles, rollin' her eyes and closin' the book. Her fingers are still in it so she dunn't close it too hard. "Later."

"As much as I... appreciate the offer, I'm not entirely shore--"

"Ahhhwkk _what_!?You said shore!"

"I said sure! I said sure and on occasion my accent causes certain words to be inflected in a way that certain other individuals would hear as sea related puns instead of correctly pronounced phrases, it's really quite and embarrassment for me--" She's blushing and trying to glare at the same. "And I certainly don't want to imply anything untoward and while I certainly appreciate your condescension in asking me out--"

"I never said I was askin'." Meenah narrows her eyes. "I said I wanted to take you to dinner."

"I'm sorry but--"

"Angelfish, you don't say not to me." Meenah says, slowly, narrowin' her eyes a little and feelin' her gills lay flat against her throat. Her ears rotate a little back but she does her best to give her a friendly, non-threatening smile. "You reelly don't wanna say no to me."

"..." She pulls her fingers out of her book, slowly, and takes a few steps away. Meenah advances towards the table, a little more menacingly than is reelly strictly necessary. A chair knocks into the table, loudly, and the librarian looks more than a little terra'fied--

"I reelly like you, okay? I reelly like you. You're pretty 'n smart and you gotta great rack 'n I want to kiss your face off so lemme take you out 'n show you a good time."

"...You think I'm smart?" She completely forgets about bein' scared in the space of about a second, her eyes snappin' to Meenah's gloriously wide behind her glasses. She reaches up and fidgets with her earrings, spinnin' the tiny sapphire studs around in little circles.

"Oh fuck yeah. I mean fuck you're just crazy clever 'n you know a lotta bout books 'n shit and you just seem reelly reelly clever and I love listenen' to your words 'n shit." Meenah shrugs floppin' onto the table and scrambling across, sendin' archival tools scattering. "I just wanna like... sit 'n lissen to you y'know... sayin' pretty things."

"...You don't think that's at all annoying?" She asks, in a small voice. "You-- you don't want me to stop talking? You like hearing me talk?"

"Shit Angelfish I could listen to you talk for days. Just. Keep sayin' words and I will listen'. 'Till I'm done listenin' cod as much as I like the way you say things sometimes I might just listen' to your voice not your, y'know, words."

"Um?" She blinks a few times, clutchin' her book a little tighter. 

"I mean I might listen to you talkin' but not what you're sayin' but well y'know--" Meenah shrugs, rolling her shoulders back and giving her a smirk. "I'm happy to stare at your rack while you go on."

"...Well it's something at least," She says, snorting a little. "Um-- but-- um-- I really don't know what to say-- I'm-- I'm not very frequently propositioned like this, you know-- and I don't mean to be rude but-- I just-- I don't know what you'd want with someone like me-- I'm-- I'm quite-- well-- I'm-- I'm flattered--"

"No, Angelfish, you're not flattered. You're honored to accept." Meenah leans in and bumps her forehead against her librarians and she squeaks. 

"...Okay." She says, quietly, flushing up to her temples. "Um. I'd... I'd like that quite a bit. Thank you."

"Yessss oh my cod you're the best." Meenah throws her arms around her and squeezes, tightly, swingin' her in a circle. She squeals a little, clearly nervous.

Things don't get much better when Meenah kisses her. Mostly becod she misses her mouth jussalittle but when she sets her feet back on the ground Meenah can kiss her better and Meenah't pretty fuckin' glad to hear it when she moans a little and her hands fly up to grab her neck. 

Ohhh she's kinda good at this. Meenah purrs into her mouth unabashedly as her fingers begin to stroke the fluttering skin of her gills and hit just alllll the right nerve endings and--

"Since we got the first kiss outta the way twice now, does that mean I'm gettin' laid tonight?"

And that's when she slaps her. 

But Meenah's _pretty sure_ that means 'maybe'.


End file.
